Amazon is getting into a new text business: text messaging. The online retail giant is rolling out its TextBuyIt service, in which people can send keywords from their cell phone to Amazon via text message and receive search results back, including prices. If they want to purchase an item, a subsequent response will prompt Amazon to call them back, using an automated voice system from which they can buy the product. The keyword can be things as broad as approximate product names, authors, and song artists, or as specific as UPC or ISBN codes.
Now, imagine you're standing in an electronics store, shopping for a new digital camera. You find one that's got the features and functions you're looking for, you like its weight and its size, and you find the buttons all easy to use. Then you wonder, might there be a better price for it on Amazon? Text, send, receive. And there, from the aisle of the competitor, you can buy that camera from Amazon.
Retailers, your world just turned upside down.
Source: AMR Research, http://amrresearch.com